“Grandma Ball” as I had always heard her referred to was born on August 12, 1865 in Pennsylvania, the sixth child of Abraham Possinger Smith and Emily Rebecca Thompson.

Sometime in the 1870’s, Rose moved to Bay County, Michigan with her family. On February 17, 1882, she married Thomas Osborn in Bay County. That marriage didn’t last very long though because just 9 months later, on November 11, 1882 she marries William Doonan. It is not clear what happened to Thomas Osborn – if they divorced or he died. Rosie would remain married to William Doonan until 1913 when he took his own life. Rosie would eventually marry Ernest Alfred Ball on August 26, 1919 in Timiskaming, Ontario, Canada. Ernest would die in 1935 and Rosie would never marry again.

Rosie passed away on October 11, 1952. At some point they changed her birth year by 10, so the newspaper states that she was in her 97th year – when in reality it was her 87th year.

The obituary leaves out my great-grandmother, Margaret Doonan who was married to John Phillips at the time and living in Saginaw, Michigan.

Rosie and William Doonan had ten children – but only 8 lived to be adults. Frank died at the age of 5 and Pearl died at the age of 4 months. Both of them are buried in Fraser Township, Bay County, Michigan. Another daughter, Emily, died at the age of 18. The oldest daughter is Rose Jane who was married to Harry Bonnaeau. Rosie and William had 3 sons who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I – Archie, Abraham and William Nelson. Archie and Abraham were wounded in the war, but lived through it.

After their youngest daughter died in 1905, William and Rosie moved in 1908 to Pence Township, Temiskaming, Ontario, Canada. I remember once when I was little that my parents (and sister), and my uncle went to Cobalt, Ontario to visit the Doonan relatives. This was probably the late 1970’s early 1980’s. I was too young to really understand who they were though. It wasn’t my dad’s first trip there though – he had gone several times with my grandparents and great-grandma, but it was the last trip he made to see the Canadian relatives.